A Social Laboratory for Modern France
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Conclusion u France, as it is sometimes suggested, is a country perpetually caught b tween ‘‘l’amourdes grandes idées et la réalité des petits arrangements.’ Such is one way of characterizing the French Republic’s search for a r newed social contract during the late nineteenth and early twentieth ce turies. Indeed, before World War I, the great republican ideals of soci solidarity, the rights of citizenship, and equal treatment before the la althoughwidelyheraldedbyreformers,didnotalwaysprovideasuﬃcie basis for attaining their legislative goals.The reality of petitsarrangement asinthecaseofthegreatlycompromisedpensionlaw,proveddisap pointing to nearlyeveryone involved, from legislators to beneficiaries. I housing, and urban and public health reform, the legislative process ha proven to be equally long, drawn-out, and frustrating. Yet,theprewardebateonsocialreforminFrancewasalsoinfusedwith far-reachingpublicdebateon lesgrandesidées. Weightyphilosophicalque tions concerning the social responsibility of the republican state and th rightfulexpectationsofcitizenstoreceivesomeformofsocialprotectio were discussed at great length, both inside and outside of Parliament, b workers and elites alike. The results of this public debate, although n readily visible in the legislative record,were in fact long-lasting. Here,w have come full circle, to reexamination of the received historiographic wisdom that has typically portrayed the prewar Republic’s record in s cial reform as being ‘‘backward.’’ 2 On closer analysis, the achievemen oftheseprewaryearsappearmuchmoresignificantthantheymightfro the legislative record alone. Once again we are reminded that the len through which one looks is also an instrument of measure. By shiftin thefocusofthisstudyfromtheParliamenttotheparapoliticalsphereem bodied by the Musée social, the outline of another configuration of th 2001.11.9 12:13 6493 Horn e / A SOCIAL LABORATORY FOR MODERN FRAN